Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine

When Noma was named 2010 Best Restaurant in the world, many of us in the restaurant industry were kicking ourselves for not knowing the first thing about the little Copenhagen restaurant. Fortunately for us, Noma was in the process of publishing their first cookbook. And it is stunning. The photography is quite artsy and rustic, but perfectly highlights the plates and ingredients. What is most striking at first is the style of food. This is local Nordic cuisine. It is heavy on the vegetables and almost totally devoid of elBulli/Alinea-style chemicals. It is fresh and unique. Tribute is paid to Redzepi's purveyors, whom he carefully sought out to provide the finest Nordic ingredients. In a practical sense, as a cookbook, I disagree with a couple other reviewers who say you will read this once and then never touch it again. There are very approachable recipes in this book. Keep in mind that recipes do not always need to be followed to the letter. If you are willing to adjust and be creative and make the recipes your own, you can easily make many of the dishes in this book. The biggest hurdle is acquiring some of the many obscure vegetable ingredients Redzepi uses. But that is when you go to your local farmers' market and find a similar substitute. My only problems with this book is that 98% of the plated food pictures are taken from straight overhead and that the dish descriptions are not written on the same page. But other than that, this is a stunning book and very refreshing one for the restaurant industry. This book embraces the mindset of the local farmers market and does it with refinement and style.

Awsome.

Man the hunter/ gatherer. Man the agriculturist. Man the domesticator of animals for food. Man the grocer. How far we have come. We look around us for food and follow the asphalt paths to the superstore. We hunt and gather and fill our wheeled wire carts. If we read a book and can't easily find the ingredients between isles 1 and 23 we panic, wring our hands, and finally dismiss the cookbook as useless. This book, much to the chagrin apparently of many of it's owners, is about a bold new idea of going outside and finding good things to eat in one's local habitat and creating astoundingly beautiful meals. The ingredients, while perhaps not available in our local superstores, are not dissimilar to other ingredients found locally to nearly everyone everywhere. The idea of showing the chef foraging and utilizing local ingredients, which have no doubt been used by his ancestors along the way for millenia, to combine and uniquely present to his local clientele who have an understanding of the Nordic culture and history is not so odd. Reading this book should be an inspiration to all chefs and foodies to explore and rediscover the culinary value of the world around us!

Excellent book

Really interesting book. The recipes are definitely not for home cooks unless you have 10k to spend on equipment and also live in Iceland for the ingredients.

Perhaps one of my most anticipated cookbook since Michel Bras' Essential Cuisine, it definitely did not let me down after I flipped through it. Beautiful pictures, detailed descriptions, and even the material used for the book cover feels good in the hands. The "Renee's notebook" section is definitely a must-read! My only minor complaint about the layout of the book is that there are no descriptions of the food on the pages with their actual photography. The major ingredients of the dishes are instead consolidated onto 1 or 2 pages that precedes the respected section of photography, which is appr. between 20-40 pages, with each dish having a reference number (such as with the Elbulli xxxx-xxxx series of cookbooks) And as with the Elbulli series, it is very difficult to identify a dish without flipping back to the mini-table of content. And for food so unrecognizably unique, I would've preferred a more Alinea cookbook-like approach to the layout. Nonetheless, a solid 5-stars. This book will be THE inspiration to many in the ages to come.

An amazing book with great stories and Amazing pictures. The recipes are also included but this is for sure a book that documents where they were and what they did when they first began as a restaurant.

The previous reviewers pretty much hit it on the head with the critiques surrounding the photographic layout that doesn't include descriptions. But it was at least a nice touch that they included the picture page number on the recipe section. Look, if you know of Noma, have eaten there or understand the chef's philosophy of hyper local and hyper seasonal cuisine then it is of course a must buy. Trying to replicate any of these dishes as they are at Noma is technically impossible because although Rene uses fancy modern equipment and a smattering of hydrocolloids, the sucesss of his type of cuisine lies in the scandinavian sourced ingredients; things like vegetable and hay ash, malt flour, birch wood and syrup and smoked/wood elements are prevalent in the recipes in the book, Rene's genius is in raising the quality and creativity level of a cusine that has gone on relatively ignored in the fine dining community and by doing so by using only what the region provides in that sense he's essentially the Scandinavian Andoni Aduriz. The publisher, Phaidon once again produces a very high quality, creative and interesting book that is fitting for the chef and his vision, paper qualtiy and binding are superb and considering the preorder price I got it for, a great value.

言葉で表現するのがもどかしいほど素晴らしい本。 世界にはこういうクリエイティブな料理をする人達がいるんだなとビックリしました。 すぐにでもコペンハーゲンに行って、この店を予約したいものです。 自然界のもので食材になるものはコレとアレ、なんて自分で狭めていたと反省しました。 レシピ本というよりはビジュアルアートの本だと思います。 何度息を呑んだかわかりません。。美しいですよ。 人生の最後の最後まで持っていたい本の二冊目になりました。

Livro incrível

I've been to the NOMA in Copenhagen, and this book doesn't fail to impress. It's reflecting all the dishes we've had, and it's a nice book to browse even when you're never there. Makes a great gift, and it's an excellent memory keeper. Love this book.

Un nouveau concept de livre de cuisine pour un nouveau mode de cuisine. La Scandinavie et ses plantes sauvages. Un bémol , les recettes sont impossible à réaliser en dehors de la Scandinavie

Awesome book. Only cookbook I've got that I sat down and read cover to cover. Heaps of ideas, cool photos and beautify constructed. Also a very large book too, so good value for weight. You could wield it effectively as a weapon, it has heft.